Many houses today are equipped with central vacuum cleaning systems. Such systems operate on the basis of a suction apparatus installed in a remote location within the house, and a network of air-tight pipes that connect with various rooms in the house. These pipes terminate in individual, wall-mounted, inlets to which suction hoses are connected.
A convenience of such central vacuum cleaning systems is that a user need not carry a stand-alone vacuum cleaner from room to room. Rather, only the hose and an associated wand need be carried to the location to be cleaned. Nevertheless, even the act of fetching such hose and wand can be an inconvenience.
Prior art patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,027,587 and 3,027,588 to Bierstock, U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,721 to Wall, U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,016 to Klassen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,967 to Graham, and the present applicant's own earlier Canadian application 2,105,554, laid-open on Mar. 4, 1995 all disclose vacuum inlets in the form of a floor-mounted receptacle through which trash may be swept for delivery to a vacuum cleaning suction source.
The present invention addresses the need for a floor-mounted vacuum inlet or sweeping suction inlet of an improved design that can be connected to a central vacuum cleaning suction source. In particular, this invention relates to a receptacle for receiving waste that does not entail the transport of the normal hose and wand tools to the site being cleaned.
A further aspect of this invention provides for an arrangement whereby the floor-mounted vacuum inlet may accommodate and operate a traditional flexible vacuum hose with a suction wand.
The invention in its general form will first be described, and then its implementation in terms of specific embodiments will be detailed with reference to the drawings following hereafter. These embodiments are intended to demonstrate the principle of the invention, and the manner of its implementation. The invention in its broadest and more specific forms will then be further described, and defined, in each of the individual claims which conclude this Specification.